


serenade me with your ocean eyes

by Riley_Ludicrous



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angels, Demons, Human Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Kitsune, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan-centric, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Sirens, Vampires, Were-Creatures, choir, that's it that's the story, the sirens adopt donghyuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-11-26 12:46:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18180779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riley_Ludicrous/pseuds/Riley_Ludicrous
Summary: Donghyuck attends a new school and finds the choir program quite to his liking.





	1. New Kid

**Author's Note:**

> The title is definitely a pun, just so ya know

The siren population at Donghyuck’s new school consists of a handful of kids who are all somewhere between “popular by way of being too well-known to not be considered so” and “ignored because they usually act like average kids,” if average kids got a majority of the solos in choir and all the leads in musicals.They’re basically the popular kids of the performing arts department, but they make the performing arts department a bit more popular than usual.

Donghyuck, a new student as of this year, finds the phenomenon strange but easy to fit into.He’s completely human, but he’s not scared, just a little thrown off when he has to correct the choir director that cheerfully celebrates having another siren.He can take it for the compliment it is.It doesn’t matter the intent because he got into the top choir anyway, and that’s hard to do when you’re up against favoritism and a teacher that doesn’t even know your work ethic. 

His first day of class, however, walking into a classroom to see a group of people who greet each other like a, well, he guesses the appropriate term might be school, or shiver,(he did a project about sharks when he was little, and he always thought “shiver” was the coolest name), is a little intimidating.They can smell him, going by the odd glances sent his way and the whispers of the core group.“Human,” they curiously note in quiet whispers. 

Then they sight read some simple round after the teacher goes over the syllabus, “to get a feel for each other’s voices,” the director says, and, _oh,_ he hasn’t been in a choir with blend this good ever before.If this is what a choir with sirens in it sounds like, he can’t wait for the first solo audition.

After that the class is close to done, and Donghyuck has an off period after this, so he relaxes into his seat to let the rushers past and to the door.While he’s thumbing through the music they’ve been given, a shadow falls over him.He looks up to see a boy with a bunny-like face smirking curiously down at him.He recognizes this as one of the students in the shiver from earlier.

_Maybe bunny-like isn’t the best adjective,_ Donghyuck considers, _but he’s so cute!_

“I’m Doyoung,” the boy begins, “you look like a new student?I haven’t seen you around, and freshmen can’t be in the audition choirs, so you must be a new student.”

“Yeah, I’m Donghyuck,” he affirms, only a little suspicious of Doyoung’s apparently superior recognition skills when it comes to the entire student population.He’d learned that people who stayed in the same school system their whole lives had time to memorize that kind of thing.

Doyoung smiles victoriously and continues on.“Do you have study hall this period?You can come hang out with my friends and I,” he suggests.

“Sure!”Usually it takes at least a few months for people to warm up to the Donghyuck and he’s the one to reach out, but he’ll take this chance.His mom likes to tell him that good friends are more valuable than gold when she’s in her wisdom catering moods, and he agrees well enough with her ideology.

Doyoung takes his bag without asking and starts walking away to his friends who are evidently waiting for them, so Donghyuck jumps up and runs after him.He hears murmurs from other classmates, “Guess they decided they want some human to eat up,” and, “Maybe he’s one of them.”It’s all jealousy that he’s heard before from students who never stopped to consider that the talented in-group wasn’t actually trying to block out everyone else. 

Ok, so maybe he has some moments of internalized wisdom catering, himself.It’s alright, he justifies, his mom is a very cool lady, and he’s completely fine with taking after her in this regard.

The sirens mostly ignore the murmurs, but they send him some concerned glances.He’ll have to prove to them that he has thick skin someday.

One of the shorter ones smiles at him and throws an arm around his shoulders.Donghyuck, whose love language is physical touch and who occasionally feels deprived by his words-of-affirmation mom, likes him already.“I’m Taeil, what’s your name?”

“This is Donghyuck!” Doyoung juts in excitedly.One of the others comes up next to him and pats his arm while calmly telling him to, “Let the boy speak for himself, Hyung.”He then leans forward and offers his hand to Donghyuck.“I’m Jaehyun.”

“Are you a sophomore, too?” one asks, “Renjunnie and I are the only ones in this group.”The boy standing beside him, presumably Renjun, rolls his eyes. 

“Dejun-ge, you say ‘only’ as if you don’t demand coddling from everyone all the time.You even try to get me to spoil you, and I’m younger than you,” Renjun accuses.Then he turns to Donghyuck and holds out his hand in greeting.Donghyuck gratefully took it.

“Yes, I’m a sophomore,” he answers Dejun, “and a ’00 liner.” 

“When’s your birthday?” asks one of the taller boys in a soft voice, “and by the way, I’m Jungwoo.”Donghyuck tells them, and his new acquaintances cheers about how he’s the youngest out of them all.Taeil brings up Chenle, but they all protest that he’s still a freshman.

They’ve been walking out of the choir room and in some direction Donghyuck isn’t familiar with yet, and then they pull him out a back door and into a parking lot.Taeil tells him he can have shotgun as the new student, and when Dejun pouts and complains, Taeil firmly reminds him that it’s his car.

On the drive, everyone finishes introducing themselves to Donghyuck.They drive to a cute milk tea shop, and when Donghyuck explains that he has no money with him, at least three people offer to pay for him.The contenders play rock-paper-scissors, and Kun smirks proudly when he wins. 

All in all, it’s a wonderful first day as far as Donghyuck is concerned.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donghyuck's mom as well as the rest of NCT are introduced.

When he gets home, his mom asks him if he made any friends, and he says ‘yes’ for once.She squeals in response and grabs the emergency ice cream - green tea flavored - out of the freezer to celebrate.They would have done this anyway because it’s their first day tradition, but celebrating the little things is part of how they survive.

“I met them in choir,” he says around a mouthful of ice cream, “and they’re sirens!Blend was so good, Mom, you’re gonna love the first concert.”

She laughs at him and tells him, “I always love your concerts, Hyuckie.”He rolls his eyes and digs his spoon into the carton they’re sharing.She glares pointedly at him as if to say, ‘I do!’ and he makes a face like, ‘You’re my mom, you have to say that.’

“You should invite them over for family dinner night!” she exclaims.He quirks his head at the idea in contemplation.

Lee family dinner nights are misleading in title because they’re the nights Ms. Lee invites the most people over, and really, every night is a family dinner night for the two of them.Sometimes they just make fried rice together and curl up in her bed for a netflix movie on her laptop, and sometimes they go out for a fancy dinner and a look through the record shop.

He’s just not sure how to go about asking his new friends, though.He logically knows that they’d probably love him for inviting them to dinner, but the irrational side of him says they’ll think he’s over-stepping his boundaries as their brand new acquaintance. 

“I’ll bring it up,” he finally responds.She raises an eyebrow knowingly at him.

“You do that, Sweetie.”

.

The next day is unlike the first from the moment he wakes up and opens a text from an unknown number that reads, _“Picking you up at 7:30 -Taeil”._

He responds to it in a bleary morning haze and then rolls out of bed and into the shower.His mom has left him a reminder on the fridge about the frozen pancake leftovers, and as he microwaves a couple he allows himself a moment to wonder why Taeil even has his number, and then he remembers giving it to him at the boba place yesterday.He hadn’t gotten any of his friends’ numbers, but he supposes he can live with gradually accumulating them. 

By the time his pancakes are warm, it’s nearly 7:30, so he grabs them, biting his lip from the heat, and scarfs them down on the way out the door.  He barely gets his backpack on shoulders by the time he’s outside.  Taeil drives up next to his curb just then and waves at him cheerily, apparently having been awake for hours.  A stranger sits in the passenger seat, and Donghyuck has to blink a few times before he gets in because the man is stunning.

Both of them turn around to tell him “Good morning!” but the stranger reaches out his hand and beams at Donghyuck while Taeil looks back to the road.“I’m Taeyong,” he tells Donghyuck. 

_“Which mythical creature are you?”_ Donghyuck wants to ask him, but he ignores his curiosity and smiles back as brightly as he can. 

“Oh, aren’t you the full sun with that smile!” Taeyong coos, and Taeil smirks into the rearview mirror. 

“Angel, you’re doing your thing,” Taeil says.Taeyong pouts over at him, and Donghyuck jots that down in his head.Playful nicknames are founded in truth, or irony, so he won’t be surprised if Taeyong is a literal angel or some kind of demon.

“I don’t mean to,” Taeyong whines.Taeil rolls his eyes and glances back at Donghyuck.“He’s adopted you.”

“I thought that’s what you did?” Donghyuck smartly replies.Taeil scoffs.

“It’s called co-parenting, Donghyuck,” he informs.

.

Donghyuck walks into the cafeteria that day, resolutely avoiding the library he usually has as his first choice during lunch, and enters into a panicked state at the combination of smells and sounds and sights.He’s a second away from running back out - the librarian might still have leftover passes to give him - when a hand rests on his back. 

Renjun, Dejun and five boys Donghyuck has never met a little ways behind him, holds his gaze and smiles reassuringly.  “You’ll sit next to me, won’t you?”

Donghyuck has never felt more grateful in his life, he thinks.  He nods helplessly.

Once he sits down, he’s introduced to all of the boys following Renjun.  There are YangYang, who greets him sheepishly, Jaemin, with the same aura Taeyong had earlier today, and Jeno, whose eye-smile almost makes Donghyuck group him with Taeyong and Jaemin, except his eyes themselves are dark like abysses, all in their grade, and the famed Chenle and Jisung, who immediately pulls out a tumbler with dark liquid that looks something like juice, both of them freshmen.  All the older sirens come a few minutes later along with Taeyong and a host of other new people Donghyuck has yet to meet.  There’s Mark, who snarls a little when Taeyong calls him ‘Cub’, and Yukhei, a model of a high schooler who plops down next to Jungwoo immediately.  

Then there’s a boy named Hendery who sits between Dejun and YangYang in a seat Donghyuck now realizes they’ve been saving for him.  Kun sits next to Chenle and Jisung.  Sicheng, opaque water bottle in hand, and Yuta, who smiles with a row of sharp teeth, nod at him when Renjun points them out to him.

Johnny sends him a wicked grin when he sits down, but at Donghyuck’s alarmed face it quickly shifts into a warmer one.  Taeyong slaps his hand like he knows exactly what Johnny did, and Johnny pulls it up like he’s been mortally wounded with a scandalized look in Taeyong’s direction.  He has the same eyes as Jeno, Donghyuck realizes.

Donhyuck turns to Renjun who’s been casually narrating the comings of everyone.  It’s a lot of people, but somehow he highly doubts that it will turn his mom off of the idea of having them all in her house.

“My mom was wondering,” he hesitantly begins, and Renjun gives him his full attention, “My mom was wondering if all of my,” he smirks awkwardly to himself, “new friends would like to come over for a family dinner sometime.”  Renjun raises an eyebrow curiously, and Donghyuck forges on, “Do you think everyone would want to do that?”

“I mean, if your mom is okay with feeding twenty high school aged boys, they’d probably love it,” he says after a moment of consideration.

Many of the others are looking curiously in their direction.  Taeyong jumps in and says, “I can bring some food and help her cook!” and the others all echo the sentiment, promising to bring drinks and anything else needed, and Donghyuck shoves down the panic rising in him to thank them.  “Friday night,” he tells them, because Lee family dinner nights are always then unless there’s an emergency.

Renjun puts his hand on Donghyuck’s back again like he did before and Donhgyuck smiles gratefully at him.  He can get used to these people, he thinks.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been in California the last 5 days on a school music trip!!! That's why I'm updating quite a bit later than I usually would. My choir got to sing at Universal and Disneyland!! It was so fun!!   
> With the tags and the unapologetic hinting I did earlier, you should probably be able to deduce who all the non-siren members of NCT are(I always do this to Johnny, whyyy), but go ahead and comment your guesses! If any of y'all are on spring break like me, I hope you're having a great time!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pianoplayer!Donghyuck strikes our hearts.

_I cannot get used to these people,_ he thinks.They’ve moved on to their first actual piece of music, split into to sectionals to learn their parts, and he’s been thrust into the position of playing the first tenors’ part on the piano after reluctantly raising his hand to indicate his ability. 

Doyoung is beaming down at him from over the piano, and Kun is sitting next to him as the other designated piano player.Despite the fact that Kun can play the piano, fairly well from what he’s heard from other choir members, Donghyuck heard him whine quietly to Doyoung about it when the choir director matter-of-factly put Kun in charge, so Donghyuck gathered up his confidence to volunteer himself in Kun’s place, and here he is.

Kun keeps complimenting him on his sight-reading skills, and Doyoung quickly echoes the sentiment when Donghyuck tries to wave it off.He’s _suffering,_ goddammit.

The other human singers in the room are viciously rolling their eyes at him.He can hear them whispering about him being a showoff sophomore, but it’s easy to ignore them and just listen to Doyoung and Kun sing the music.Eventually he gains enough confidence to sing as he plays, and Doyoung exclaims over his voice like he himself is not a mythical creature made to lure sailors to their deaths with his own.

The three of them make a lot of progress in their given time, and Donghyuck gives the other guys in their section the benefit of the doubt.In the last few minutes of class, the director has them sing as far as they can before the bell rings.Donghyuck sight reads the last sections with mild success, and the boys in their section that were too busy gossiping about him scrape by. 

Doyoung snags his arm and Kun, his bag, and they head straight to Taeil’s car, forgoing any chat in the choir room.  He ends up in the middle seat between Renjun and Doyoung, and everyone is already talking over each other about where to go and what to do.  Doyoung clears his throat with an lips barely parted to reveal sharp teeth, and the others quiet down curiously.

“Check the group chat,” he tells them, sharing a glance with Kun.Donghyuck allows himself a pout at the obvious exclusion.Renjun notices his disappointment and pats his thigh in apology.

“I’ll add you on later,” he whispers into Donghyuck’s ear, and Donghyuck nods as casually as he can in response with the other boy’s breath around his ear.

Everyone else in the car is furiously typing away at their phones except Taeil, whose hands grip the wheel tightly while Dejun whispers into his ear, and Renjun, who checks his for half a second before turning it off and snaking an arm around Donghyuck and glaring straight ahead. 

.

“There’s actually twenty of them,” he tells his mom that evening over dinner.To her credit, she doesn’t even flinch.“Not all of them are sirens.I’m convinced at least one of them is an angel, and I think there might be a two demons.A few are probably vampires, and the others could be weres.They’re supposed to be kind of common in the supernatural community, did you know?”He learned the last bit of information from the snooping he did on various online forums, so it could be fake for all he knows.He’s guessed the high number of sirens comes from their vague proximity to the sea. 

His mom nods along to his narrative with an amused smile.He makes sure to tell her that most of them plan on helping out with the meal, but he doesn’t think it would’ve made a difference.

She prods about the rest of his day, and he skims over the frigid treatment he’s gotten from some of the other members of the choir to talk about the new music and his volunteering to play.She grins triumphantly at that, and he preens under the attention.

Later while they wash dishes together, she glances at him meaningfully and says, “I know this can’t be easy for you, moving around as much as we do, but I’m really proud of how you’ve handled it.”

.

Renjun adds him into the group chat that night as promised.

**Moominjunnie:** guys stop planning revenge for a hot sec and welcome our human

**mom#1:** Donghyuck!!!!

**Lee Donghyuck:**?

**Moominjunnie:** thats doyoung hyung

**Lee Donghyuck:** hi hyung!

He spends a little while figuring out everyone’s nicknames, and they make his ‘Haechan’.He chooses not to think too long about “our human” and how bubbly inside it makes him feel coming from Renjun.

.

Taeil picks him up at 7:30 again the next morning, with Taeyong once again in the passenger seat.Taeyong pauses in the middle of applying lip gloss to wish Donghyuck a good morning, and Donghyuck responds and tells him he looks very pretty.

“Our human flirts better than you, Hyung,” he quips playfully at Teail, and Taeil pouts in response. 

“Donghyuck-ah, don’t make me look bad,” he tells him.Donghyuck just giggles at him.

.

He thanks Taeil when they get to school before getting out of the car.With someone driving him, he’s realized that he has the time to sort his books between his locker and his bag and probably saved his back for however long Taeil keeps driving him to school.He picks a seat in the middle of his first class and starts on a reading that’s technically due later that day.Unfortunately he doesn’t get very far before someone interrupts him.

“You’re Donghyuck, right?” the distraction asks him.He looks up, prepared to give his best dead-to-the world eyes, but he recognizes the classmate form lunch the day before.

“Yeah,” he confirms, “Jaemin?”Jaemin nods and smiles one last time before leaving him alone.He only has half a page left by the time the bell rings, which is more than enough to waltz through an in-class discussion on the excerpt.

Jaemin starts talking to him again when he closes his book.The stragglers take their seats while the bell rings and the teacher clears his throat to talk about numerical patterns or something of the sort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, I'm sorry about the texting part? I hate writing texting. I don't actually text a lot, so it's not very natural for me.   
> I hope you liked this chapter! Please comment and let me know what you think!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> classroom bullying, a realized crush, and a beach afternoon.

That first class of the day is really fun with someone to whisper to and snicker and exchange funny looks with.The next class is his advanced math class, and he finds Yukhei and Mark there.Mark doesn’t talk much: he’s too focused on the lesson. Yukhei is completely willing to talk, and he doesn’t really whisper, but the teacher never reprimands him very harshly.Actually, most of the times she calls him out, it’s with a fond look.Donghyuck gets it, truly.

His third class has no one he’s friends with, but there _are_ a few kids from choir that he tries to strike up conversation with.  The first three times, they glare at him or roll their eyes at each other, and Donghyuck gets the hint, honestly, but then he goes and makes some silly, dumb joke, mostly to himself, and they turn around.

“Just because the fish-tails like you doesn’t mean you’re so much better than us,” their apparent leader tells him.Donghyuck keeps completely quiet after that, eyes down to his notes.He can hear them whispering to each other, loud enough that he can hear them say that he’s not a good singer and that he’s ugly and that he’s annoying.He can logically knock out the first one because the fact that he even got into the high-level choir speaks of his ability, but the last two grate on his insecurities.

In his last class before lunch, there’s no one that he knows, on good or bad terms, so he just focuses on the lesson.The teacher has already decided that she likes him, so it’s a reasonably fun time.

At lunch, most of the group is already there.  Some of them look at him worriedly, and Renjun tugs him down next to sit next to him, and informs through gritted teeth, sharp and thin and barely noticeable through tightly pursed lips, that they’ve all heard something about him getting harassed during third.  

He giggles awkwardly and loudly says, “They only said stuff.  You really shouldn’t worry about me!”

Renjun raises an eyebrow at him.Down the table, Taeyong and Doyoung share a look. 

“They shouldn’t be trash-talking our human,” Dejun says, pouting next to him.Renjun leans behind Donghyuck to smack his arm.

“He means our friend.You’re our friend, you know that right?”Renjun stares pointedly at him, and Donghyuck flushes under the close attention.He nods shyly, speechless under the impassioned gaze, and only once Renjun looks away does he release the breath he didn’t know he had been holding.

_No,_ he whines internally, _I can’t have a crush so soon!Bad brain!_

He gulps down his lunch and leans onto the shoulder of the closest person in his agony, which, fortunately or no, happens Renjun.  Renjun reaches up a hand to comb fingers through Donghyuck’s hair.

.

There’s another class with some acquaintances but no one that he’s incredibly familiar with and then choir.Choir whizzes by, going over music and fixing problems, and then the sirens are pulling him to Taeil’s car.It’s funny to have such a routine.

They go to Jaehyun’s house today because he apparently has a karaoke machine, and Donghyuck thanks God that he made friends with a bunch of choir nerds like him, but much like yesterday, Renjun is next to him the whole drive there, fingers in his hair like at lunch.The worst part is, he can’t even tell if Renjun knows the effect he has on Donghyuck. 

Jaehyun’s house is modestly sized and homey and right on the beach.Donghyuck makes some comment about sunbathing, and they all look longingly at the water.

“We could just hang out on the beach instead of karaoke, you know?” he comments.They purse their lips and look at each other in consideration. 

“It’s not like it’s a secret,” Renjun says. 

With that they’re all running toward the water, and some of them look like they could jump in fully clothed.As they strip down to their underwear, Doyoung whines that they should come to Jaehyun’s house more often, and Donghyuck giggles softly to himself.He doesn’t plan on swimming with them because he does enjoy soaking in the vitamin D, but he loves to see them all cut loose. 

He’s lost in his wonderings for a hot second before he looks at them again, their absence specifically, and then he notices the splashes from tails and fins barely breaking the surface.He suspects that the only reason they’re staying so shallow is for his comfort, or his protection.He smiles fondly at them.

As if sensing his attention, one looks up over the waves just then.He can’t tell immediately who it is, because their faces and ears are distorted, but he waves nonetheless, and the siren smiles with rows of sharp teeth that remind Donghyuck of a book about sharks he read when he was a kid.

_“Sharks aren’t really much of a threat, Sweetie, a majority of the bites that have been taken happened to surfers because with their boards they looked like fat sea lions!”_

His mom loves sharks, along with most varieties of marine biology.It’s one of the few topics he’s seen her get into fights with people over.She once challenged another Facebook mom when the lady made some comment about not wanting her kids to go swimming in the ocean because of the sharks.

He wonders if it has anything to do with his love of his new group of sirens, with their teeth and tails and dangerously predatory-themed mythology. 

After nearly an hour of watching them play and pop up to greet him ever once in a while, they come back to him.  He gets dripped all over, and his phone is in mortal danger, but he restrains his whining to a dull roar.  

.

“Tomorrow night at your house?” Taeil confirms as he drops Donghyuck off that night.Most of the others were picked up from Jaehyun’s, and the last few been dropped off.

“Yeah.Thanks for the ride, Hyung.”

“Anytime, Donghyuck-ah.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry this update took so long. I've been sick and busy and tired, sooooooo yeah.  
> Just so you know, Donghyuck's mom is me. I once confronted a Facebook mom about her irrational fear of the ocean. Sorry, readers, I can get pretty mean about sharks.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with a multi-chap. I hope you like this idea! I promise Donghyuck is completely human! Please leave kudos and comments!


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